7 Reasons Why Good Product Managers Must Be On Twitter

For some reason people from all over the world are using Twitter like crazy at the moment. Well, actually it is not really surprising, because you can do a lot of cool things with it. In this post I list and explain my reasons why I use Twitter and why I think every good Product Manager should do so as well:

Connect with other PMs

In a previous post I have published a List of Product Managers in Twitter, which is a good starting point to get in touch with Product Managers. The best thing in the Twitter network is: It is a worldwide trend, no matter how good you are networked in your local or national networks, in Twitter you will find interesting people from all over the world!

Get in touch with (potential) clients

Think about what your target group could be thinking (and tweeting) and use search.twitter.com to find these tweets. Answering Questions can be an effective way to interact with (potential) clients!

Listen to customer feedback

“What should I tweet?” is a very common question for Tweeters. The question “What should I listen to in Twitter” is not so common, but here is in my opinion the biggest potential for PMs. People in Twitter love to talk about their experiences with products of all kind. So even if your product has nothing to do with the internet at all, it is very likely that somebody already tweeted something about it. Discovering these tweets is relatively easy with search.twitter.com and you can alternatively use other tools, if you want (see for example this mashable post about alternative Twitter search tools)

Locate the experts

There are a couple of famous people active on Twitter and if you like their tweets you should not hesitate to follow them. Tip: Maybe one of them is live-tweeting from an interesting conference that you cannot attend.

Share good and relevant articles

For sure you are reading good articles about product management from time to time. Sharing them via Twitter will help you to get new targeted followers

Grow your online-reputation

If you regularly tweet about specific topics and interact with other users, you can slowly grow your reputation about a specific topic or your product in the Twitter-sphere. For sure this will not happen over night – Social Media is a marathon, not a sprint!

Let people know about your product

Last not least: Promote your products from time to time! But do not do the mistake and ONLY talk about your stuff. Success in Social Communities can in the long term only be achieved with real interaction with other people!

I hope I could convince you to use Twitter and to follow me What are your reasons to be on Twitter?

Good post. Your #3 is an area I’ve been giving a lot of thought to lately because I think we’re really only scratching the surface so far when it comes to using social media as Product Managers.

To me, social media (especially twitter) has the greatest value to those who learn how to “listen” well. When it comes to product management, customer feedback is just the beginning. Adept product managers will use very public social conversations to sense emerging problems and needs in the marketplace, and fashion that insight into powerful product strategies.

Interesting post. But what if your customer is not on Twitter etc. Aren’t there a lot of companies out there which have prohibited the use of any Social Media tools available? So in the end only 2-3 points remain (Like point 1, 6, 7). And they are sometimes a “nice to have” but not crucial for the business itself.

I would love to see our customers on Twitter etc. so I would be able to address them directly. Unfortunately, this is a dream as of now.

By the way I have asked a question on my blog how to convince these customers to make use of Social Media etc. If you would like to add a notion etc…go ahead on http://www.galig.ch/blog/?p=236

All that is very nice, but it is very important to be able to control the time spent on Twitter and its ROI. It’s very easy to spend a loooot of time on Twitter for very limited ROI. I am now only Twittering with a watch on my side

I like number 4 and 6. Your post on number 4 is so true. I feel I can be engaged in a conference I couldnt attend by following tweeters that have had a live cam at one.

The post on number 6, I have to agree with because it helps us promote our blogs and connect with others who may be blogging about the same stuff and we can connect with them and also get more info that we may be lacking about the same subject.

[...] Twitter for Product Marketers Posted in Uncategorized by salesenablement on May 28, 2009 Via rocketwatcher.com, I’m subscribed to, I found “7 Reasons Why Good Product Managers Must Be On Twitter”: [...]

[...] IMHO, an essential tool for product managers and product marketing managers. Articles such as 7 Reasons Why Good Product Managers Must Be On Twitter by Thomas Fuchs Martin and 5 Not Obvious Reasons Product Marketers Should Twitter by April Dunford [...]

[...] 2009 5 Comments Thomas Fuchs Martin over at webproductblog.com had a great post called “the 7 reasons why good product managers must be on Twitter” which covers the big reasons like listening to customer feedback and connecting with other [...]